Library Locations

For in-person visits, please see Borrowing and Access Privileges: Onsite Access.

American Art Museum-National Portrait Gallery Librar

American Art and Portrait Gallery Library

The AA/PG Library is the leading destination for study in American art and portraiture, and includes strong holdings in American and European art, American history and biography, and American crafts.

Anacostia Community Museum Library

Anacostia Community Museum Library

The Library supports the Anacostia Community Museum's mission, which is to document and preserve communities’ memories, struggles, and successes, and offer a platform where diverse voices and cultures can be heard.

Botany and Horticulture Library

Botany and Horticulture Library

The Botany Library and Horticulture Branch Library provide research support for the departments and the large number of botanists world-wide who use the collections and resources.

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library

The major resource in the United States for books, trade catalogs, serials, pictures, and archival material covering design and decorative art from the Renaissance to the present.

Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology

Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology

The Dibner Library is the Smithsonian’s collection of rare books and manuscripts relating to the history of science and technology. Located in the American History Museum in Washington, DC.

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Library

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Library

With more than eighty-six thousand volumes, the Library now is considered one of the finest repositories of Asian art resources in the United States.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library

A research collection devoted to modern and contemporary painting, sculpture, drawings, prints, photography, video, film and emerging art forms.

John Wesley Powell Library of Anthropology

John Wesley Powell Library of Anthropology

The Library collection reflects the important role that the Smithsonian Institution played in the development of anthropology as a formal discipline in the United States

Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History

Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History

The Cullman Library holds the Smithsonian's collection of rare books in anthropology and the natural sciences and contains approximately 20,000 volumes published before 1840.

Museum Support Center Library

Museum Support Center Library

Serving the research needs of staff at the Smithsonian's Museum Support Center for the purposes of collections storage, research, and conservation.

National Air and Space Museum Library

National Air and Space Museum Library

A premier aviation and aerospace history collection, the library supports research by the Museum’s curatorial staff and aviation researchers around the world

National Museum of African American History & Culture Library

National Museum of African American History & Culture Library

The Library supports the mission of the museum, and the research and documentation of all aspects of the African American experience.

National Museum of American History Library

National Museum of American History Library

A premier American history collection covering all areas of American history and culture, including social, economic, technological and scientific developments.

National Museum of Natural History Library

National Museum of Natural History Library

The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) Library consists of the main location (in NMNH's East Court) and 11 specialized collections throughout the NMNH building.

Crop of a zoom-in of a 10-cent postage stamp honoring Booker T Washington

National Postal Museum Library

Contains more than 40,000 books, journals, catalogs, and documents, and is among the world's largest postal history and philatelic research facilities.

National Zoological Park Library

National Zoological Park Library

Opened in 1898, the National Zoological Park library is one of the oldest in continuing existence at the Smithsonian.

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Library

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Library

Provides support for the Smithsonian scientists studying ecological systems and processes and SERC's education staff and programs.

Smithsonian Libraries Research Annex

Smithsonian Libraries Research Annex

The Smithsonian Libraries Research Annex (SLRA) holds over 50,000 monographs, over 300,000 periodical holdings, and is the most subject-diverse branch within the Smithsonian Libraries system.

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Library

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Library

The Library supports research, publications, academic and public programs, and exhibits of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, as well as biological research in Panamá and across Central America.

Vine Deloria, Jr. Library, National Museum of the American Indian

Vine Deloria, Jr. Library, National Museum of the American Indian

The Deloria Library supports the National Museum of the American Indian Museum, the Cultural Resources Center, and the George G. Heye Center in New York City.

Warren M. Robbins Library, National Museum of African Art

Warren M. Robbins Library, National Museum of African Art

The major resource center in the United States for the research and study of the visual arts of Africa with more than 50,000 volumes.